Sunday, September 19

If I had to pick a percentage out of a hat, I might say 98 percent. Right. As hard as it is to imagine, most communicators (advertisers, marketers, public relations professionals) have no concept of strategic communication or how to differentiate strategies and tactics. Many of them resort to treating strategies as objectives (which is very accurate).

As a fresh pick recap post, I won't bore you with the definitions today. What I will do is share five posts that demonstrate strategic thinking as opposed to the typical tactical execution where most people place their focus. Take a look and enjoy.

Best Fresh Content In Review, Week of September 6

• Case Study: Tyson Foods Hunger Relief.Geoff Livingston shares some insights and observations on the Tyson Hunger Relief program, which began in 2007. It was among the first corporate programs to expand using social media with a Wordpress blog, which was later augmented by social networks, including Twitter and Facebook. The program stands out for its sense of purpose as each phase was built out over the course of three years. Tyson also took the campaign offline, engaging people at social media events. Smart stuff.

• Crowd Sourcing Means More Work for You, Not Less.In a guest post by Len Kendall, the Spin Sucks blog establishes some checks and balances to crowd sourcing, including a content calendar (timeline for engagement), visibility, editing submissions, promoting good work (beyond the winners), and establishing a definite end to the program. All of his points are valid and mindful, taking the crowd sourced content of the tactical box and into the strategic box.

• The ROI of Rotary.In his first guest post on the Social Media Explorer, Ike Pigott tackles the history of social media ROI by using a Rotary analogy and reminding professionals that not every measurement needs to be marked off with a click, like, follow, or even sale. Social media tends to be more fluid, with an understanding that not all measurements are quantifiable. Often, it's the benefits we don't measure that have the most value.

• The Three Dimensions Of Internal Branding. Another guest post on Social Media Explorer, this time by Heather Rast, hits all the right notes on the topic of internal branding (which is also one of my favorite subjects). Right out of the box, Rast suggests that employers have a tendency to talk in terms of "they" (employees) and "we" (employers), which further diminishes the power of "we" inside every company. After all, if everyone — customers, prospects, and employees — is assigned to the "they" column, it doesn't leave many people on your side. You can read her other great points by reading the post.

• Hope for Better Conversations. Geoff Livingston and Beth Harte cowrote ten topics they would like to see more discussion about as opposed to the written-to-death social media memes that tend to take up everyone's time (and unfortunately still drive traffic). Among the hot topics that are under covered, they stay, are citizen journalism, government data usage, and culture shifts. They have some solid ideas in what they propose, but as someone who has written about most of their suggestions, I can promise few people will read them. But then again, that is the point, isn't it?

Engaging Strategic: Fresh Content Project

If I had to pick a percentage out of a hat, I might say 98 percent. Right. As hard as it is to imagine, most communicators (advertisers, marketers, public relations professionals) have no concept of strategic communication or how to differentiate strategies and tactics. Many of them resort to treating strategies as objectives (which is very accurate).

As a fresh pick recap post, I won't bore you with the definitions today. What I will do is share five posts that demonstrate strategic thinking as opposed to the typical tactical execution where most people place their focus. Take a look and enjoy.

Best Fresh Content In Review, Week of September 6

• Case Study: Tyson Foods Hunger Relief.Geoff Livingston shares some insights and observations on the Tyson Hunger Relief program, which began in 2007. It was among the first corporate programs to expand using social media with a Wordpress blog, which was later augmented by social networks, including Twitter and Facebook. The program stands out for its sense of purpose as each phase was built out over the course of three years. Tyson also took the campaign offline, engaging people at social media events. Smart stuff.

• Crowd Sourcing Means More Work for You, Not Less.In a guest post by Len Kendall, the Spin Sucks blog establishes some checks and balances to crowd sourcing, including a content calendar (timeline for engagement), visibility, editing submissions, promoting good work (beyond the winners), and establishing a definite end to the program. All of his points are valid and mindful, taking the crowd sourced content of the tactical box and into the strategic box.

• The ROI of Rotary.In his first guest post on the Social Media Explorer, Ike Pigott tackles the history of social media ROI by using a Rotary analogy and reminding professionals that not every measurement needs to be marked off with a click, like, follow, or even sale. Social media tends to be more fluid, with an understanding that not all measurements are quantifiable. Often, it's the benefits we don't measure that have the most value.

• The Three Dimensions Of Internal Branding. Another guest post on Social Media Explorer, this time by Heather Rast, hits all the right notes on the topic of internal branding (which is also one of my favorite subjects). Right out of the box, Rast suggests that employers have a tendency to talk in terms of "they" (employees) and "we" (employers), which further diminishes the power of "we" inside every company. After all, if everyone — customers, prospects, and employees — is assigned to the "they" column, it doesn't leave many people on your side. You can read her other great points by reading the post.

• Hope for Better Conversations. Geoff Livingston and Beth Harte cowrote ten topics they would like to see more discussion about as opposed to the written-to-death social media memes that tend to take up everyone's time (and unfortunately still drive traffic). Among the hot topics that are under covered, they stay, are citizen journalism, government data usage, and culture shifts. They have some solid ideas in what they propose, but as someone who has written about most of their suggestions, I can promise few people will read them. But then again, that is the point, isn't it?